This is an accurate and well-written portrait of Pitchfork bookended by musings on the current state of music criticism as a business.
When music is free or asymptotically free due to streaming, are reviews even necessary?
I love reading reviews, even for albums I’ve already listened to. They provide an additional perspective and often are full of history, influences and other additional information that you won’t get from the album itself.
It’s so interesting, how differently us humans are wired.
I’ve always preferred to experience art without additional verbiage - even by the original creator. I have this sentiment for the visual arts as well as for music.
Cultural context, interest in artist backstories, discussion of sonic details, etc. The same reason someone reads about anything?
For me reviews act as curation. If something is 7+ on one of my favorite review sites, i’m going to listen to it. A very useful service in a time when the music stream is seemingly endless and as you say, almost free.
“There’s a looming risk of repeating what the writer Alex Balk called his Third Law of The Internet: ‘If you think The Internet is terrible now, just wait a while.’”